John Allman of the California Institute of Technology thinks that much of this social deficit may come down to a lack of a special class of spindle neurons, sometimes called Von Economo neurons after their discoverer, who made the observation in 1925. Spindle neurons consist of a very large bipolar neuron that is found only in the frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex and thought to provide the interconnection between brain regions that are activated by social learning. This location may explain why spindle neurons have been found solely in species that are particularly social, including all the great apes, elephants, and whales and dolphins.
Humans have the biggest population of spindle neurons located in the frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex areas—the same regions that may be disrupted in autism spectrum disorder. Spindle neurons are thought to work by keeping track of social experiences, leading to a rapid appreciation of similar situations in the future. They provide the basis of intuitive social learning when we watch and copy others. It may be no coincidence that the density of spindle neurons in these social regions increases from infancy to reach adult levels somewhere around the fourth birthday in typical children, the watershed when most child development experts agree that there is noticeable change in social intuition skills. This may also explain why individuals with autism, who have disrupted frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortical areas, have difficulty working out what the rest of us just know without having to think very much.
This article was originally published with the title Knowing Me, Knowing You.
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5 Comments
Add CommentWhile the "Von Economo neurons" may come in to play and differences may be shown, let's be careful about our science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe know that un-fired connections in the brain will leave weaker connection, so any work in the future to confirm brain differences in this area still wouldn't identify a cause.
Knowing a child with high functioning autism who used to be more comforted by the letters on cnn news when his mother picked him up as he cried, makes me suspect other areas in the brain are being rewarded. The mother noticed the boy didn't cry when we was facing the screen and he only stopped crying when it was a show with letters like the shopping channel or had subtitles.
This autistic boy was reading in two languages Japanese and English and to this day is reinforced primarily by written words.
Social intuition is an extremely useful skill. However, none of the animals cited in this article can read. I do wonder, as the parent of this child, if autism is intellectual evolution gone somewhat awry.
Perhaps we still haven't evolved into social theory of mind, where we understand what other tribes, cultures, beliefs, sexes are thinking, whatever social thinking is. I'd hate to think what the analog in individual thinking Lady Gaga corresponds to. Or Libyans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis still leaves the serious question of what causes the lack of development of the missing neurons. Then there is the question of what to do about them. Is there a way to cause more of these neurons to form? Is a possible correction of the deficit dependent on early detection or would it work at any age?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for posting this. My son is very high functioning. His language and vocabulary are amazing! He is the "little professor" type. He does struggle in the social skills area but what was fascinating about your post was about the child being comforted by the letters on the t.v. screen. My son drives us all crazy by putting the captions on the t.v.! I will have to find out more about this!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother thing I have thought was weird and wondered if there was any connection was when my son was about 3 his arches fell. One day he had beautiful high arches on his feet and then the next he was flat footed. I was so upset I took him to the doctor but they had no idea why it happened. This was long before I found out he had Asperger's.
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